LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


G  I  FT    OF 


Class 


?*ZyL 


O       P  obit 


a 


ROBI 


OTHER  PEOPLE'S  MONEY 


BEING  A  STORY  OF 
MUNICIPAL  SPECULATION  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES 

BY  ROBERT  P.  PORTER 


HE  advocates  of  municipal  ownership 
in  the  United  States  are  threatened 
with  a  movement  in  England  which 
may  knock  the  underpinning  from 
their  structure  and  bring  down  the 
edifice  with  a  crash.  The  epidemic 
of  municipal  trading  and  interference  with  private  en- 
terprise may  be  arrested  by  a  Royal  Commission,  or 
Joint  Committee  of  Parliament,  which  has  been 
appointed  to  define  the  extent  to  which  municipal 
trading  shall  be  sanctioned  by  the  Legislature.  The 
contention  of  a  large  and  influential  body  of  English- 
men, who  have  become  thoroughly  alarmed  at  the 
present  situation,  is,  that  individual  effort  in  England 
is  being  crushed  and  enterprise  stifled  by  municipal 
interference ;  that  unless  a  vigorous  opposition  is 
organized  against  these  encroachments  of  the  muni- 
cipality the  national  consciousness  will  be  choked  in 
the  coils  of  the  boa  constrictor  bureaucracy  as  effectually 
as  it  has  been  in  Germany. 

The  facts  in  relation  to  this  important  movement, 
which   only  crystallized  six  months   ago,  will    come 


Municipal 

interference 

stifles 

individual 

enterprise 


^Reprinted  from  the  N.  Y.  Times  of  October  jl,  1899. 


164286 


Other       People's       M 


o  n 


e  y 


Conclusions 
of  half -baked 
economists 


Englishmen 
alarmed 
at  the 
increase  in 
their  local 
debt 


as  a  surprise  to  those  in  the  United  States  who  have 
accepted  without  question  the  conclusions  of  enthusi- 
astic writers  or  half-baked  economists  in  relation  to 
the  achievements  of  municipal  trading  in  England. 
If  only  a  part  of  the  acts  alleged  as  a  basis  for  Parlia- 
mentary action  and  a  halt  in  this  tendency  to  State 
omnipotence  be  true,  the  disillusioning  is  likely  to  be 
as  complete  as  it  will  be  sudden. 

The  immediate  cause  for  alarm  and  dissatisfaction 
on  the  part  of  taxpayers  is  the  increase  of  local  indebt- 
edness and  taxation  since  the  inauguration  of  munici- 
pal trading.  From  1878  to  1897  the  local  debt  of 
England  and  Wales  has  more  than  doubled,  and  now 
represents  the  enormous  sum  of  $1,260,000,000,  over 
half  of  which  represents  various  trading  plants  which 
may  or  may  not  be  worth  the  original  capital  invested 
therein.  In  the  past  twenty  years  the  local  debt  of 
England  has  increased  120  per  cent.,  and  the  annual 
amount  of  local  taxation  has  increased  77  per  cent., 
against  an  increase  in  the  population — the  paymaster 
who  has  to  meet  these  increasing  burdens — of  only 
23.6  per  cent.,  and  in  the  ratable  value  of  his  property 
of  only  26.7  per  cent.  It  is  furthermore  claimed,  in 
a  recent  address  by  Dixon  Henry  Davies  before  the 
London  Society  of  Arts,  that  while  the  imperial  legis- 
lators have  been  devoting  themselves  to  a  systematic 
reduction  of  the  national  debt,  local  legislators,  under 
the  pretense  of  doing  all  sorts  of  things  for  the  corn- 
community 


Other       People"  s      Money 


munity  which  should  be  left  to  individual  enterprise, 
have  as  steadily  been  augmenting  the  liabilities  of 
municipal  taxpayers. 

Enormous  as  is  the  increase  in  local  debt,  there  is, 
as  Mr.  Davies  truly  contends,  no  closing  the  capital 
account.  He  instances  the  case  of  electricity.  Mu- 
nicipalities in  England  have  hitherto  only  dealt  with 
this  great  subject  in  a  small  and  timid  spirit.  The 
total  indebtedness  under  this  head  in  the  last  pub- 
lished figures  is  only  some  $15,000,000,  due  to  the 
fact  that  about  all  the  English  municipalities  have  thus 
far  done  is  to  tie  up  this  important  and  universal 
industry  so  that  private  enterprise  is  afraid  to  touch  it. 
Experts  declare  that  if  the  English  authorities  retain 
possession  of  the  electrical  industry  and  keep  pace  with 
the  needs  of  the  future,  they  will  have  to  spend 
$500,000,000  where  they  have  at  present  spent 
$15,000,000.  "Surely,"  says  the  writer  referred  to 
above,  "  such  a  vista  of  capital  commitment  should 
give  pause  to  the  counsels  of  those  adventurous  spirits 
who,  with  vicarious  enterprise,  are  so  ready  to  land 
the  ratepayers  in  further  trading  risks." 

The  most  discreditable  thing  to  municipal  enter- 
prise in  England  in  this  connection  is  the  fact  that  in 
no  less  than  104  cases  local  authorities  have  obtained 
and  are  holding  "  provisional  orders  "  granted  by  Par- 
liament for  electric  lighting,  etc.,  without  doing  any 
thing  to  carry  the  powers  into  effect.  Dog-in-the- 
manger - 


The  Dog-in- 
tbe- Manger 
tactics  of 
English 
local 
authorities 


Other        People"  s        Money 

manger-like,  these  powers  have  been  taken  to  keep 
private  and  individual  effort  out,  and  the  natural  result 
is  to  retard  enterprise  and  stop  the  progress  of  the 
towns. 

That  these  encroachments  of  municipal  governors 
into  the  domain  of  commerce  restrict  and  repress  in- 
dividual enterprise  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Indeed,  it 
is  being  loudly  proclaimed  in  England  that  it  has  had 
the  deplorable  effect  of  enslaving  the  free  energies  of 
the  nation,  especially  in  the  exploiting  of  electrical 
enterprise. 

The  facts  presented  to  sustain  the  charge,  it  must 
be  admitted,  are  of  a  startling  character.  Not  only 
have  municipalities  obtained  "  provisional  orders  "  in 
order  to  prevent  individuals  from  entering  the  field  of 
competition,  but  they  have  organized  an  opposition  to 
all  efforts  on  the  part  of  private  enterprise  to  extend 
the  service  or  lower  the  price.  The  Electric  Lighting 
act  of  1888  provides  that  "the  grant  of  authority  to 
any  undertakers  to  supply  electricity  within  any  area, 
whether  by  license  or  provisional  order,  shall  not  in 
any  way  hinder  or  restrict  the  granting  of  a  license  or 
order  to  the  local  authority  or  to  any  company  or  per- 
son in  the  same  area."  We  are  told  that  whenever 
electric  stations  belonged  to  private  companies  the 
local  authorities  have  promptly  taken  advantage  of  this 
section.  But  what  was  sauce  for  the  company  goose 
was  by  no  means  sauce  to  the  municipal  gander.  The 

act 


Other       P e o p  I  e  9  s       M  o  n  e  y 

act  makes  no  difference,  but  the  municipalities  have 
always  granted  authority  to  competing  companies  in 
cases  where  private  companies  controlled,  but  have 
systematically  refused  where  the  plants  were  controlled 
by  municipalities. 

Nor  is  this  the  worst. 

The  most  high-handed  outrage  so  far  perpetrated  ^ 
in  the  name  of  municipal  ownership  was  the  defeat  in   '  ^  J  . 

Parliament  of  proposals  to  supply  large   districts  in 
i  i       c  T-       i       i      -i  i  i  i  outrage 

the  north  or  England  with  a  thoroughly  modern  sys- 
tem of  electrical  transmission.  When  the  means  of 
insulating  high-tension  currents  became  improved,  and 
other  scientific  appliances  were  devised,  it  was  discov- 
ered, so  says  Mr.  Davies,  that  the  English  parochial 
limits,  fixed  in  the  time  of  King  Alfred,  did  not  form 
a  scientific  division  for  confining  a  peculiarly  elastic 
and  transmissible  force.  Some  parties  therefore  pro- 
posed, in  full  reliance  on  the  section  of  the  act  of  Par- 
liament above  quoted,  to  establish  electric  transmission 
systems  on  a  much  larger  and  more  modern  scale  than 
has  hitherto  been  known  in  England,  but  which  would 
in  no  way  be  unusual  either  in  the  United  States  or 
Germany.  They  moreover  proposed  to  subject  them- 
selves to  a  maximum  charge,  less  than  one-half  the 
rate  which  the  municipalities  were  authorized  to  charge, 
and  were  as  a  general  rule  charging  for  the  electrical 
unit. 

What  did  the  friends  of  municipal  ownership  do  ? 

Welcome 


Town  Cltrks 

oppose 

cheap 

ekctric 

power 


Other       People"  s       Money 

Welcome  and  assist  the  company  in  the  effort  to 
establish  modern  methods  in  an  important  industry  ? 

On  the  contrary,  they  organized  a  relentless,  bitter, 
and,  from  the  American  point  of  view,  unlawful  oppo- 
sition, and  by  concentrating  the  municipal  political 
influence  defeated  the  second  reading  or  the  bill  in 
Parliament. 

Yet  no  monopoly  was  sought  for  the  company 
who,  I  am  told  on  reliable  authority,  merely  wished  to 
trade  in  competition  with  any  existing  station,  just  as 
a  new  railway  seeks  power  to  compete  in  the  carrying 
trade.  The  proposal  was  welcomed  by  the  trading 
community.  The  Chambers  of  Commerce  petitioned 
in  its  favor,  and  no  one  opposed  the  great  enterprise 
except  the  municipalities.  These  organizations,  with 
their  autocratic  town  clerks,  did  not  want  the  price 
of  electricity  reduced. 

It  has  been  proved  by  reliable  testimony  that  this 
proposal  would  have  practically  supplied  electricity 
from  a  central  station  on  the  coal  fields  over  an  area 
of  nearly  2,124  square  miles  for  lighting,  power,  and 
any  purpose  for  which  it  would  be  used ;  and,  having 
regard  to  what  was  being  done  in  Germany,  Austria, 
Italy,  and  our  own  country,  it  was  quite  certain  that  it 
could  be  supplied  at  something  like  one-fourth  the 
rate  at  which  it  is  sold  at  present.*  At  a  meeting  held 


to 


*  Since  the  above  was  written  in  November,  1899,  the  writer  has  visited  this  district  in 
Derbyshire,  with  Chesterfield  as  a  center,  and  Sheffield,  Derby,  Nottingham,  Doncaster  and 
Barnstey  aa  principal  towns.  He  has  also  examined  similar  proposals  in  South  Lancashire  and 


Other        People's      Money 

to  protest  against  the  attitude  of  municipalities  in  re- 
lation to  this  and  kindred  enterprises,  Mr.  Graham 
Harris  said :  "  The  total  area  in  that  district,  at 
present  supplied  by  municipalities  who  were  op- 
posing the  bill  and  stirring  up  opposition  all  over 
the  kingdom,  was  under  four  square  miles,  and  the 
whole  work  might  be  done  by  one  small  engine 
working  continuously.  They  had  730  customers, 
but  the  whole  population  was  counted  by  hundreds 
of  thousands.  The  suggestion  of  the  municipalities 
was  that  the  company  should  be  prevented  from 
supplying  that  area,  and  that  all  the  millions  of  people 
in  the  area,  including  their  730  customers,  should  be 
prevented  having  the  electricity  at  the  price  the  com- 
pany were  prepared  to  supply  it  at." 

After  reading  the  above,  surely  we  must  accord 
with  another  British  authority,  who  declares  that  here 
we  see  the  municipal  trader  in  his  true  colors.  He 
does  not  wish  to  trade  in  the  same  way  that  any  com- 
mercial man  trades,  facing  difficulties  as  they  come, 
contending  with  his  rivals,  whoever  they  may  be, 
adapting  himself  to  new  conditions,  scrapping  his 
existing  plant  as  soon  as  it  is  superseded,  and  substi- 
tuting more  efficient  plant,  often  at  great  sacrifice/' 
"  Your  municipal  trader,"  says  Mr.  Davies  in  his  able 

address 

Cheshire,  in  Leicestershire  and  Warwick,  and  in  Glamorganshire  and  Monmouth,  South  Wales, 
representing  districts  of  964  square  miles,  1,265  square  miles,  and  1,034  square  miles  respect- 
ively. In  each  c?»-  the  private  proposal  for  supply  of  light,  heat  and  power  is  far  below  the 

nri»a*»nf  rn«t 


present  cost. 


Other        People's        Money 


If  science 
prove  him 
wrong,  so 
much  the 
worse  for 
science 


An 

organized 
lobby  for  the 
suppression 
of  fair 
dealing 


address  before  the  Society  of  Arts,  "won't  hear  of 
scrapping  superseded  plants.  He  wants  protection  for 
the  ratepayers'  trade.  If  science  has  shown  that  he  is 
on  the  wrong  lines,  and  has  made  an  improvident  in- 
vestment, so  much  the  worse  for  science,  which  must 
f3  to  the  wall  (as  it  has  in  Glasgow  and  many  other 
ritish  cities)  before  the  necessities  of  municipal 
trading.  Science  must  wait  until  his  machinery  wears 
out.  That  will  be  quite  time  to  introduce  anything 
new." 

In  these  efforts  to  destroy  all  enterprise  and  obtain  a 
complete  monopoly  for  the  British  Town  Clerk  and 
his  municipal  contractors  and  friends,  the  Municipal 
Corporation  Association  has  been  formed.  This  body, 
I  am  told,  raises  its  funds  for  such  extraordinary  and, 
happily  in  the  United  States,  unheard  of  proceedings 
by  a  ratable  levy  over  the  whole  of  the  affected  towns, 
so  that,  although  ostensibly  preserving  its  local  char- 
acter, the  opposition  is  centralized.  This  association, 
equipped  with  learned  counsel  and  a  well-organized 
lobby,  becomes  most  powerful  at  Westminster.  In 
the  particular  case  referred  to  it  called  upon  munici- 
palities all  over  the  kingdom  to  bring  pressure  upon 
their  respective  members  of  Parliament  to  defeat  the 
bill.  Thus  the  North  of  Scotland  and  South  of  Ire- 
land are  whipped  into  line  to  defeat  measures  which 
would  be  of  immense  value  to  Lancaster,  York,  and 
some  of  the  Midland  counties.  As  things  stand  at 

the 


Other  People's  Money 
the  present  moment  in  England  this  powerful  organi- 

••11          •  i        •     •   •      •  r  •      j-     •  j        i 

zation  is  the  barrier  against  the  initiation  or  individual 
enterprise,  and  the  risk  of  having  to  face  such  an  op- 
position practically  debars  even  the  attempt,  except  on 
some  such  scale  as  above  described.  It  has  aptly 
been  described  as  a  power  organized  especially  to  stifle 
new  enterprise  at  its  birth,  not  for  the  common  good, 
but  to  protect  selfish  interests.  No  wonder  the  tax- 
payers and  commercial  bodies  of  England  are  up  in 
arms  against  a  scheme  for  the  suppression  of  fair  deal- 
ing by  the  unlimited  enlargement  of  the  functions  of 
government.  The  nearest  approach  to  this  organiza- 
tion which  we  have  in  the  United  States  is  at  the 
present  moment  advocating  the  repeal  of  the  wise 
constitutional  provisions  in  so  many  State  Constitu- 
tions which  limit  the  creation  of  municipal  debt  beyond 
a  certain  percentage  of  the  assessed  value  of  property.* 
Baffled  by  these  wise  provisions  in  their  attempt 
to  bring  about  the  British  condition  of  affairs  in 
the  United  States,  the  American  advocates  of  mu- 
nicipal trading  have  discovered  that  this  obstacle 
must  be  removed  before  municipalization  of  profit- 
making  industry  is  possible.  While,  therefore,  the 
form  the  question  is  taking  in  the  United  States  is 
a  little  different,  the  object  sought  to  be  attained  is 
precisely  the  same. 

These  are  some  of  the  specific  charges  which  will 

be 


*Seeu  Vested  Wrongs,"  by  Robert  P.  Porter. 


Other       P  e  o  p  I  e  '  s       Money 

be  made  during  the  next  session  of  Parliament  against 
what  the  English  call  municipal  trading,  but  which  we 
exploit  under  the  term  municipal  ownership.  The 
general  charges  are  equally  worth  considering  and 
should  start  those  advocating  these  schemes  for  the 
United  States  thinking.  These  charges  completely 
dispose  of  the  four  stock  arguments  of  the  municipal 
ownership  advocates  in  the  United  States,  which  are, 
as  is  well  known, 

(a)  That  municipalities  can  borrow  more  cheaply 
than  private  individuals. 

(b)  That  if  a  profit  can  be  made  out  of  the  general 
supply  of  some  commodity  for  the  community  why 
should  not  the  community  realize  that  profit  for  itself. 

(c)  That  the  motives  of  private  adventure  are  self- 
seeking  and  sordid,  and  contrast  unfavorably  with  the 
disinterestedness  of  the  city  Aldermen    (New  York, 
Philadelphia  and  Chicago,  for  example). 

(d)  That   some   of  these    enterprises   are   in    the 
nature  of  monopolies,  and  that  it  is  better  that  the 
Government  should  be  a  monopolist  than  a  private 
person. 

To  this  case  of  the  municipal  trader  which  I 
have  put  in  a  nutshell,  the  English  opponent  of  mu- 
nicipal Socialism  aptly  and  vigorously  replies,  sustain- 
ing his  position  with  an  array  of  data  that  confounds 
the  college  professor  and  socialistic  clergymen  who 
have  rushed  madly  into  the  municipal  ownership  arena 

and 


Other       People'  s      Money 

and  want  our  cities  to  absorb  alike  all  the  lighting  and 
street  railway  enterprises. 

In  the  first  place  these  English  economists  claim    ^ 

that  the  cost  of  borrowed  money  is  a  small  element  of    indtctment 

,  r  .  .      \          ,.  ••    i   •'•/••       answered 

cost  in  the  success  of  municipal  trading  when  there  is 
a  loss  of  10  per  cent,  in  cost  of  management  when 
municipal  is  compared  with  personal  talent  in  man- 
agement. 

Commenting  on  the  "profit  to  the  community" 
argument,  one  of  the  speakers  who  took  part  in  the 
discussion  before  the  London  Society  of  Arts,  says  : — 

"  We  seem  to  have  heard  of  this  system  before  in 
"  a  remote  island,  where  we  are  told  the  inhabitants 
"  earned  a  precarious  livelihood  by  taking  in  each  other's 
"washing.  The  great  danger  of  a  municipality  en- 
"  gaging  in  a  trade  is  to  hold  the  balance  evenly  be- 
<c  tween  the  ratepayer  as  proprietor  of  the  municipal 
"  works  and  the  ratepayer  as  consumer.  The  two  are 
"  not  by  any  means  identical." 

Exactly  !  For  example,  the  municipality  of  Nott- 
ingham, we  are  told,  makes  a  large  profit  out  of  its 
gas,  and  last  year  a  prominent  manufacturer  of  that 
town  spoke  very  bitterly  of  the  feeling  of  the  large  gas 
consumers  that  they  were  charged  unduly  for  their  gas 
in  order  that  the  money  so  received  should  go  to  the 
maintenance  of  a  technical  school.  This  the  manu- 
facturers claimed  was  robbing  the  rich  to  give  to  the 
poor.  Again,  in  Sheffield,  the  municipality,  realizing 


Other        People**       Money 

a  profit  from  the  tramways,  immediately  reduced  the 
Th*  point  rates  by  twopence  in  the  pound.  This  has  aroused 
the  working  classes  who  live  along  the  tramway  route. 
They  say  they  are  practically  the  sole  users  of  the 
tramways ;  that  a  lowering  of  the  district  rates  means 
hardly  anything  to  them,  but  to  the  rich  property 
owners.  They  have  denounced  this  process  as  steal- 
ing from  the  poor  to  give  to  the  rich.  Should  they 
decide  in  Sheffield  to  reduce  the  fare  or  in  Notting- 
ham to  reduce  the  price  of  gas  to  the  actual  cost,  the 
Councils  of  these  towns  would  still  be  open  to  the 
criticism  of  the  taxpayer  who  used  neither  gas  nor 
tramways,  upon  whom,  with  his  neighbor,  this  burden 
of  debt  and  subsidized  industry  must  fall.  In  fact, 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  entire  community  should 
be  dragged  into  a  large  trading  venture  with  a  large 
capital. 

The  third  point  against  individual  enterprise  is 
well  described  as  being  based  upon  cant,  or,  at  best, 
ignorance.  The  Town  Council,  at  its  best  and  clean- 
est, is  no  better  than  the  private  company — in  some  of 
our  American  cities  it  is  much  worse.  Will  Dr.  W. 
S.  Rainsford  or  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott  or  Dr.  Albert  Shaw 
or  Professor  Bemis  please  answer  the  question : 
Other peo-  "Where  is  the  inherent  beneficence  or  nobility  in 
pie's  money  those  who  merely  adventure  other  people's  money  ?  " 
There  are  just  as  many  good,  sterling  qualities 
required  in  venturing  your  own  money — courage, 

steadiness 


Other       People's       Money 

steadiness  in  adversity,  tenacity  of  purpose,  faith, 
and  loyalty, — all  necessary  to  steer  great  undertak- 
ings through  troubled  waters.  To  thus  fence  off 
by  the  staves  of  officialdom  field  after  field  of  enter- 
prise from  the  adventure  of  the  individual  capitalist 
is  indeed  to  deaden  commercial  activity,  and  to 
atrophize  those  energetic  faculties  which  hitherto 
have  been  the  mainspring  of  industrial  progress  both 
in  England  and  the  United  States. 

The  fourth  and  last  point  is,  that  in  private  hands 
such  trades  are  monopolies.  We  hear  it  made  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  A  generation  or  more  ago  trunk 
railways  were  regarded  as  monopolies.  Yet  today  there 
are  practically  five  running  from  London  to  the  north. 
So  from  New  York  to  Chicago,  and  even  to  San  Fran- 
cisco. Had  the  Government  undertaken  these  great  in- 
dustries we  should  have  had  one  trunk  line  in  each  case, 
as  on  the  Continent  of  Europe.  Railway  development 
would  have  been  retarded  and  competition  not  near  so 
keen.  Instead  of  progress  we  should  have  had  stag- 
nation. Committing  such  enterprises  to  the  unwise 
action  of  the  Legislature  discourages  and  restricts  the 
enterprise  of  the  capitalist  and  condemns  promising  in- 
dustry to  the  sterile  and  monopolistic  hands  of  muni- 
cipal management. 

Another  element  of  danger  has  developed  both  in    Additional 
Manchester  and  Glasgow,  where  these  cities,  not  con- 
tent  to  manage  their  own  tramways,  are  seeking  power 


to 


Other        People's       Money 

to  inaugurate  a  system  of  tramways  within  from  ten 
to  sixteen  adjoining  districts,  in  which  it  is  actually 
claimed  by  these  municipalities  that  no  company  what- 
ever should  have  a  right  to  put  down  or  work  tram- 
ways. The  municipalities  of  Manchester  and  Glasgow, 
bear  in  mind,  do  not  say  they  will  make  all  necessary 
tramways,  but  the  contention  is  that  only  those  shall 
be  made  which  they  approve. 

All  these  arbitrary  measures  come  before  Parlia- 
ment, so  the  opponents  to  municipal  trading  claim,  pro- 
moted and  lobbied  by  the  aforesaid  Municipal  Cor- 
poration Association.  It  is  said  that  no  less  than 
seventy  municipalities  are  applying  either  to  Parliament 
or  the  Board  of  Trade  for  power  to  trade  in  electrical 
fittings,  thus  coming  actually  in  competition  with  pri- 
vate manufacturers,  and  in  addition  to  that  a  large 
number  of  bills  from  municipalities  seeking  to  become 
trading  corporations.  In  all  these  enterprises  the 
wretched  ratepayer  will  be  called  upon  to  pay  whether 
the  business  is  successful  or  not.  As  in  the  case  of  a 
company,  there  would  be  no  winding  up. 

The  effect  of  all  this  on  labor  is  most  disastrous. 
The  thousands  of  employees  of  these  cities  are  all 
voters,  and  they  are  bound  to  vote  for  those  who  pro- 
Badfw  pose  to  tak-e  care  Of  them,  regardless  of  the  poor  beg- 
gars whose  occupation  is  destroyed  by  the  curtailing 
of  individual  enterprise.  In  a  recent  election  for  the 
London  County  Council,  the  borough  of  Southward 


Other       People's      Money 

was  treated  to  a  poster  to  the  effect :  "  Vote  for  So 
and  So,  who  will  pay  the  scavengers  the  wages  of 
25  shillings  a  week."  Here  was  a  serious  element  of 
corruption  which  will  become  bad  enough  in  Great 
Britain,  but  unbearable  in  the  United  States.  The 
London  County  Council  is  at  this  moment  having 
serious  trouble  with  their  tramway  labor.  It  will 
probably  end  by  the  taxpayers  being  saddled  with  the 
difference.  Labor  should  receive  the  highest  possible 
pay,  and  should  use  all  legitimate  endeavor  to  secure 
it.  Wages  dependent  upon  political  elections,  how- 
ever, are  bad  alike  for  the  employee  and  the  body 
politic,  whether  municipal,  state,  or  national. 

In  short,  the  claim  is  being  made  in  England,  and 
sustained  with  an  overwhelming  amount  of  facts,  that 
in  twenty  years  municipalities  have  not  given  so  good 
an  account  of  their  stewardship  as  private  enterprise 
would  have  done.  In  view  of  this  an  attempt  will 
be  made  to  impeach  the  whole  category  of  municipal 
enterprises,  and  if  possible  to  bring  the  administration  fotlttj 
of  English  municipalities  once  more  to  their  original  wantin 
and  legitimate  moorings.  The  Royal  Commission 
which  will  soon  be  announced  has  authority  to  inquire 
into  the  whole  subject,  and  if  it  consists  of  fair-minded 
men  will  submit  both  interesting  and  important  results. 

For  the  benefit  of  American  readers  I  have  epit- 
omized in  a  short  space  the  conversations  I  have  heard 
in  many  directions  among  intelligent  men  of  affairs  in 


Other        People's        M  o  n  e  y 

a  recent  stay  in  London.  Other  facts  have  been  culled 
from  reports  of  speeches,  debates,  and  newspaper  articles 
in  the  leading  London  journals.  The  whole  clearly 
points  to  a  strong  revulsion  of  feeling  in  England 
against  municipal  trading.  This  sentiment  will,  as  I 
have  said,  crystallize  during  the  next  session  of  Parlia- 
ment, as  the  fourth  proposition,  that  relating  to  South 
Wales,  will  be  pressed  forward  during  the  present 
winter.  Meantime  these  facts  are  given  as  a  warning 
to  American  taxpayers  against  the  fiction  spread  all 
over  the  United  States  as  to  the  gratifying  results  of 
municipal  ownership  in  the  United  Kingdom. 

Including  Glasgow,  there  is  not  a  single  such 
enterprise  in  England  which  has  given,  or,  under 
present  conditions  of  operation,  can  give  as  good 
and  as  satisfactory  results  to  the  community  as  can  be 
obtained  by  properly  regulated  industrial  management. 


Economic  Works  of  Robert  P.  Porter. 

LOCAL  GOVERNMENT:  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.  Reprinted 
from  "The  Princeton  Review,"  July,  1879. 

REPORT  ON  VALUATION,  TAXATION  AND  PUBLIC  INDEBT- 
EDNESS IN  THE  U.  S.  RETURNED  AT  THE  TENTH  CENSUS. 
(  l88a)  by  Robert  P.  Porter,  Special  Agent. 

THE  WEST  IN  1880.  An  industrial  history  of  the  Western  States  of  the 
United  States.  630  pages,  maps  and  diagrams,  $3.  Rand,  McNally  & 
Co.,  Chicago,  iSSa. 

BREAD  WINNERS  ABROAD.  100  letters  from  Europe.  I.  S.  Ogilyie 
&  Co.,  New  York,  1884. 

FREE  TRADE  FOLLY.     J.  S.  Ogilvie  &  Co.,  New  York,  1886. 

COMMERCE  AND  INDUSTRIES  OF  JAPAN.  A  Report  of  investiga- 
tions made  for  the  National  Association  of  Manufacturers  of  the  United 
States,  1896. 

LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  McKINLEY,  Soldier,  Lawyer,  Statesman.  With 
biographical  sketch  of  Hon.  G.  A.  Hobart,  1896.  |r.  The  N.  G. 
Hamilton  Co.,  Cleveland,  O. 

"MUNICIPAL  OWNERSHIP  AND  OPERATION  OF  STREET 
RAILWAYS  IN  ENGLAND.  A  paper  read  before  the  Special  Com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  to  consider  and  investigate 
the  subject  of  relations  between  Street  Railways  and  Municipal  Corporations, 
and  reprinted  from  the  report  of  the  Special  Committee.  House  Document 
No.  475.  February,  1898. 

"MUNICIPAL  OWNERSHIP  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD.      1898. 

^INDUSTRIAL  CUBA.  Being  a  Study  of  Present  Commercial  and  Indus- 
trial Conditions,  with  suggestions  as  to  the  opportunities  presented  in  the 
Island  for  American  capital,  enterprise  and  labor.  6a  illustrations,  and  4 
maps  8°.  438  pages,  $3.50.  1899.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York, 

*VESTED  WRONGS.  An  address  read  at  the  Third  Annual  Convention 
of  the  League  of  American  Municipalities,  held  at  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  Sep- 
tember 19-22,  1899.  15  cents. 

*OTHER  PEOPLE'S  MONEY.  Befng  a  story  of  Municipal  Speculation 
and  its  Consequences.  1900.  Revised  and  reprinted  from  the  New  York 
Tttxes,  October  31,  1899.  45  cents. 


*May  be  obtained  from  Leonard  Darbyshirc,  100  Broadway,  New  York. 


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